


An Answer Unspoken

by Guardian Of The Lotus (DistantStorm)



Series: Fictober 2019 [17]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Guardians & Relationships, Relationship Advice, Strange family dynamics, Titans, like family dinner but with beer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-20 21:04:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21063173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DistantStorm/pseuds/Guardian%20Of%20The%20Lotus
Summary: “Alright, which one of you is going to explain how that happened?”Written for day 17 of the Fictober 2019 Challenge: "There is just something about them."





	An Answer Unspoken

She's not on leave for long. Hardly a week and she'll be headed back to methane rain and stormy seas. Even so, she ends up spending half her time around command, so accustomed to military life she doesn't know what to do with herself. Or, at least that's what she does until Amanda gets out of the hangar, most days. That girl always has something up her sleeve.

It's been a really good leave.

The one night she has plans with someone who isn't Amanda, she knows she'll end up seeing her anyway. They have quite a few mutual drinking buddies, and everyone frequents the same(best, in her opinion) bar. Just so happens - coincidence, yeah right - that it's the one Zavala designates as their go to for their 'socials.'

Really, it's more like a family dinner but with beer instead of food. The Hunters might have their secret meeting spots, and the Warlocks could have their innumerable book clubs. Sloane knows for certain that the Titan orders are the envy of most.

After all, how often did Ikora or Cayde essentially open the floor - and their bartab - to their subordinates?

Thus, when Thursday night came around, Sloane was excited to kick back and shoot the shit with her people. She'd caught up a bit with Zavala, but he was a busy man. There had been new Titans since the Traveler woke and she was looking forward to meeting them, as well. Hopefully it happened before she was off her tits, but if they don't make themselves known, it's not her problem.

Titan is a dry planet. She hasn't been drunk since before the War.

It explains why Shaxx is already hollering and handing her two pints when she cracks the door open. Sloane guzzles the first pint in one go, rallying the troops and getting a helluva howl out of the Crucible handler. When she looks up, Zavala cracks a rare smile before tipping his mug her way in an acknowledging toast.

Sloane grins. Her shoulders relax, she’s confident but at ease. It's good to be home.

-/

One of the Titans down at the end - not a Kinderguardian, but wasn't risen until well after Twilight Gap - brings up relationships. Not an unusual topic. In fact, the only unusual thing about it is the vein of discussion the younger striker brings up, loosened up enough not to feel like her superiors are immediately judging her.

"So I met this guy," She starts, still a little nervous, but she follows it off with a big gulp of ale. She's a pretty Exo - her faceplates are shiny and pristine, and her eyes are yellow, yet kind. "Back at the Farm. And I just… he asked me out."

The table erupts in bawdy calls, some reaching out to slap her on the back, others smirking with glee. "So what's the problem? He a Hunter or something?" Someone closer to Sloane's side of the table questions. "Do it. Go out!"

She sighs, wrapping both hands around her mug before saying, softer, "He's not a Guardian. He's human."

The table falls silent. Sloane exhales slowly, controlled. It's not common, at least, it wasn’t very common before the war, but she understands if better than most. Zavala looks to her, and she meets his gaze grimly. She knows he’s not stupid, he all but raised Amanda, and she has no doubt he knows they have something going on. Both blink in concern toward their sister in arms.

"I don't think I could do it," A sentinel next to Zavala says, setting down his mug. "It's-we're not," He scratches the back of his head. "I mean, they die."

"We die, too," Another sentinel, an Awoken female with a shaved head, points out. Looking towards the Exo, she asks, "Is it the one who patched you up after Hawthorne brought you in? He was soft-spoken, but kind."

Exos can't flush, but there's a little hiss of air from a vent near the plates of her cheeks. "Yeah," She admits, wringing her hands now. "That's the one."

The table dissolves into murmurs, easily washed away by the sound of patrons around them.

"I say go for it," Sloane tells her. The lower-ranking Guardian's head rockets up, her surprised optics meeting russet eyes. "I mean, just because they don’t live as long, doesn’t make it less special. If you have feelings for them, why shouldn’t you?”

“I’d feel like a guard dog,” One of the few Sunbreakers among them comments. “It just… doesn’t sit right with me. They’re fragile. I’d be worried about hurting them.” He turns to the man next to him. Slyly, he adds to the guy next to him, “Especially in the bedroom.” 

Zavala clears his throat, and the other Titan withdraws from that branch of conversation.

“What say you, Commander?”

The rest of the table looks to him immediately. The poor Exo who’d started the conversation looks rather concerned - torn between desperately wanting the advice and fearing he’d deter her. It’s obvious, Sloane can see it on her face.

His Ghost appears beside him before he can answer, and he looks to her. Whatever they say is not verbalized, it’s a flick of a shell, the twitch of his lips, the move of an eyebrow, the shift of his gaze. She disappears for a moment, then reappears, dipping in a delicate nod. 

The bar door cracks open, and Shaxx is bellowing again. “Now the party is really starting!” He beckons the newcomer in. “Here to show these Guardians how to really throw ‘em back?

The woman is dark-skinned and drops her hood the moment she’s inside, short hair smoothed back as though the hood is still in place. “Next time, Shaxx. I’ve got places to go tonight.”

Shaxx grins, and Sloane tilts her head, brows furrowing. Zavala clears his throat again. “Hawthorne.”

Sloane looks over at the woman. So that’s who she was. They’d crossed paths on comms and in strikes. Zavala had introduced them a while back. “Yea-ah?”

He doesn’t smile, but his eyes warm, she notes. Hawthorne heads to his side of the table as he fills her in on the situation. “One of my Titans is wondering about dating a human. Care to weigh in?”

If she’s surprised, she doesn’t look it. Sloane watches them share a nearly expressionless glance before Zavala’s eyebrow goes up, anticipating her response.

“Can’t speak for you all, but,” She looks up and away, as if considering, but Sloane can read her posture. She’s not trying to consider a response, she’s trying to word it appropriately. 

One of their brood starts talking before she does.“The whole immortality thing-”

Hawthorne snaps,“You think it hurts watching someone age? Imagine being the one knowing you’re going to leave someone you care about alone.” Her eyes are cool, but there’s something there, in that gaze. Sloane crosses her arms. One of the Sunbreakers grumbles, and a Sentinel elbows him.

Sighing, the woman looks around the table before settling on the Exo as if knowing she was the one who needed the advice in the first place. She leans forward when she speaks. "If I were to hypothetically date a Guardian it'd be for the same reason I'd date anyone else,” Hawthorne tells her. “I wouldn't care about super-strength or glowing fists, I'd care about the person behind them. If they tried to protect me from the world I'd be really angry. I can protect me. I'd just want them to, y'know," She pauses awkwardly, swallowing hard, her gaze flitting around the table, from Sloane to the Exo, lingering on Zavala for a beat, then back to the Exo paying rapt attention, "Be with me. As equals. And whatnot."

Sloane can’t help but find Zavala’s gaze, wondering what he really does think of such relationships. He’s not exactly- She loses her train of thought, when she realizes he’s not looking at his Titans at all. He’s looking at her. Hawthorne.

“I agree,” He says to her and she smirks right into that very open Zavala stare like it’s commonplace.

“Of course you do,” Hawthorne chides, head shaking in a small movement as if she’s incredulous he has to say it aloud. “I’m right.”

“So, you’d date a mortal, Commander?” The Exo asks quietly. 

Zavala rises instead of answering, saying, “You’ll have to excuse me. It’s about time I turn you over to Shaxx so you can start making a dent in my glimmer.” The group laughs, well aware they’d be drinking up a small fortune with Shaxx at the helm of the evening’s affairs from here on out.

“Wow, is it ten already?” Shaxx queries mildly, sitting at the bar behind the table. “Almost past your bedtime, Commander,” He chides, not unlike an elder brother. Snickers are hidden behind hands at the teasing.

“It’s only half past nine,” One of the Titans’ Ghosts informs the group.

“Not at all,” Zavala apprises Shaxx. “I simply have other plans.” He looks down at the Exo, placing a hand on her shoulder as he passes, squeezing gently. “Have a good evening,” He tells them. “Stay out of trouble.”

The chorus of ‘yes’sir’s that follow is met with a kind gaze and a fatherly nod. Hawthorne, Sloane realizes, has all but faded from their purview. Sloane catches sight of her by the door, Zavala’s Ghost phasing in front of her face, saying something Sloane can’t make out from a distance.

“I can’t believe he didn’t answer you,” One of them says to the Exo, breaking the Deputy Commander’s reverie. She shrugs, returning to her beer, the group growing quiet. It would likely be the last silence that would pass for the night, knowing how Shaxx’s portion of the festivities went.

“Pay attention, Titan,” Shaxx says, wistfully, nodding to the door. “I think you’ll find his answer.”

Hawthorne is waiting for him. Zavala. His Ghost bobs up and over her Guardian’s shoulder delicately. He holds the door open for her, the worn bell tinkling as he lets it go. They see the pair in the window at the font of the establishment, Hawthorne pulling up her hood, Zavala’s arm slung across her shoulders. Whatever they’re saying, they’re smiling. There’s nothing romantic about it, yet that’s why it is. It’s comfortable. Heartwarming. A type of ordinary Guardians yearn for but rarely find.

“Wow,” The Exo whispers. "I didn't-"

“There’s just something about them,” Shaxx croons, still in that gentle register. “Blink and you’ll miss it.”

When the group stays quiet, Sloane can help herself no longer. “Alright, which one of you is going to explain how _that_ happened?” She asks, motioning to the bartender for more pitchers of ale. She makes a note to her Ghost that in the event that she blacks out that she be reminded in the morning to ask Amanda why she didn’t tell her, to which her Ghost snidely remarks that no amount of alcohol will wipe something this surprising from her memory.

Shaxx drops down from the bar and slams his pint on the table beside her, the mood righting itself as he laughs. “It’s a long story. But we’ve got time. And ale.”


End file.
